adieu, big rapids
The time has finally come to leave this uniquely desperate, bitterly cold, isolated northern Michigan town that has been my home for the past four semesters now! I remember moving in up here, having to leave behind Lansing, Michelle, and every other Lansingite that I can still hang out with there. I remember saying that this town began when they headed their wagons north and founded the town where their wagons broke down. (Ok, I still say that.) I remember thinking that it was just a matter of time until I got back out of dodge, but it was so far away! Well, it's here, dammit!! I'm leaving this city in triumph. I'll be moving down to my folks and commuting to the K-zoo campus to continue on with course work there. I have to now bid my fine city adieu, and move out on Friday after my exams are over.
Michelle's coming up Thursday evening, and even Kent is stopping on over from Mt Pleasant to celebrate at the Saw Mill with cheap brew.
I guess the entire time here wasn't wasted. There are some things of interest which I will soon be leaving, and will never have the good fortune to do again!
Some of these are:
Grab a beer at the Saw Mill. $2 for a mug of what’s on tap! And yes, that does include Leinenkugels! Gotta love the wild north. $4 more will get you a burger and fries! Money is scarce up here, and the savings gets passed down to me and my liver.
Having stromboli at the Pizza King. This place is family owned, has some of the best pizza crust I've ever had, and the inside is host to a Japanese text original Pole Position arcade. Lunch between class was never finer.
Also of interest if you’re looking for food: Peppers Grill is Big Rapids’ answer to Panera Bread. Their sandwiches r0xx0r. Schuberg’s is also mighty fine if you’re looking for decent food and a beer for not too much. Good for taking one's folks out to a decent local estab when they come up to visit, aka, my folks.
This town also has a drive-up A&W. In the summer, it gives you a chance to go out and grab a fast-food burger without feeling like you’ve sold out and bought a McAngina with fries … but there’s prob no difference other than the taste. And the frosty mug of A&W root beer. Damn! I want some now! Open back up, b@$t@rd$!!
Biking the White Pine rail trail. Ok, ok, my lazy a$$ may not have taken full advantage of this, but the dozen or so times I did ride on it, I had a good time, and vowed to bike more. Once I made it up to Paris and back, the next town north, about a 15-mile round trip. It was after this, that I realized the error in judgement in thinking I could pick up and bike any long distance on it. My a$$ still hurts just thinking about it - and yes, I do happen to have one of those cushy geriatric bike seats on my rig. There was even talk about one day making it up to Reed City, then switching trails and making it westward to our wonderful west coast. What folly! I guess on my state map, the three inches doesn't look as grueling.
Taking a walk on the city's river trail. This was always a good place to go for a walk with Michelle and Molly. Maybe not so much for Molly. She doth detest the cold river water. However, a new foot bridge spans the Muskegon River high above the "rapids" of Big Rapids. They are not spectacular. They are not to behold. This town’s name is a misnomer. I want my money back.
Studying my ass off at the FSU library. Heh, whatever. Their newly built library is actually pretty sweet to study in. It has a lot of high ceilings and large windows to chill and study. When I wasn’t burying my nose in my notes, it was sweet to drift off staring at the architecture. God, I hate school.
Other things I will miss about not just being here, but getting to/from here is the strange journey here and back. Depending how creative you get coming up to Big Rapids, you pass though quite a bit of Amish country. Especially near Stanwood and Rosebush. At least if I have a breakdown, brother Hezekiah can get me to class on time in his vintage horse-drawn buggy in conservative style. How times have changed. Perhaps if it was like 1750 and this was Germany, they would be the hippies of their times. Now they just interfere with my haste as I’m speeding by slurping coffee.
Other sweet stops were the several cider mills you’d pass by on M-66. In the Fall you could stop and pick up a jug of fresh cider or at any time I guess you could also find glass bottles of Sioux City sarsaparilla. My life for their sarsaparilla!
Other oddities: The low-freq FM-band station that comes in between Weidman and Shepherd plays a lot of old 1940’s era radio programming on Friday afternoons. As I would head down through there on my way to Lansing on Fridays, I would usually get to hear an episode of the Planet Man and the Great Gildersleeve. When you’re driving in the car on a long trip, and there’s nothing better to do, these radio plays really do the trick. Also sickeningly addicting is NPR, which I listen to compulsively, now that I get to listen to a repeater of the Ann Arbor NPR/Michigan Radio news broadcast on my travels around the state. (104.1 FM out of Grand Rapids, but also 91.7 in Ann Arbor/Detroit and 91.1 in Flint.)
And lastly, my little hut. My house is maybe about 180 sq ft. There’s a bedroom with just enough room for my bed and a nightstand, literally one foot to spare outside of that. A tiny bathroom where I have to step over the toilet to reach the unit shower. And the living room/kitchen where both are crammed somehow into enough space to fit a fridge, desk, futon, and TV with just about no room to spare. Photos are difficult. Not a lot of room for a wide shot. Might need a fish-eye lens to do it justice. It’s small and cramped, but it’s been home now for the last 16 months. I will miss it strangely enough, even though the experience is like living in submarine with windows. It means more when Michelle comes up. Makes me feel cozier, like this is our little destitute mansion. Someday we will both be living in something more accommodating, but this did just fine for now.
And now, I must head on down the trail come Friday. I’ll miss it more, knowing that once back with my folks, I won’t be living in my own place anymore. Michelle already doesn’t. I can’t wait to get an apt again.
Big Rapids, someone set you up the bomb. Make your time.
Michelle's coming up Thursday evening, and even Kent is stopping on over from Mt Pleasant to celebrate at the Saw Mill with cheap brew.
I guess the entire time here wasn't wasted. There are some things of interest which I will soon be leaving, and will never have the good fortune to do again!
Some of these are:
Grab a beer at the Saw Mill. $2 for a mug of what’s on tap! And yes, that does include Leinenkugels! Gotta love the wild north. $4 more will get you a burger and fries! Money is scarce up here, and the savings gets passed down to me and my liver.
Having stromboli at the Pizza King. This place is family owned, has some of the best pizza crust I've ever had, and the inside is host to a Japanese text original Pole Position arcade. Lunch between class was never finer.
Also of interest if you’re looking for food: Peppers Grill is Big Rapids’ answer to Panera Bread. Their sandwiches r0xx0r. Schuberg’s is also mighty fine if you’re looking for decent food and a beer for not too much. Good for taking one's folks out to a decent local estab when they come up to visit, aka, my folks.
This town also has a drive-up A&W. In the summer, it gives you a chance to go out and grab a fast-food burger without feeling like you’ve sold out and bought a McAngina with fries … but there’s prob no difference other than the taste. And the frosty mug of A&W root beer. Damn! I want some now! Open back up, b@$t@rd$!!
Biking the White Pine rail trail. Ok, ok, my lazy a$$ may not have taken full advantage of this, but the dozen or so times I did ride on it, I had a good time, and vowed to bike more. Once I made it up to Paris and back, the next town north, about a 15-mile round trip. It was after this, that I realized the error in judgement in thinking I could pick up and bike any long distance on it. My a$$ still hurts just thinking about it - and yes, I do happen to have one of those cushy geriatric bike seats on my rig. There was even talk about one day making it up to Reed City, then switching trails and making it westward to our wonderful west coast. What folly! I guess on my state map, the three inches doesn't look as grueling.
Taking a walk on the city's river trail. This was always a good place to go for a walk with Michelle and Molly. Maybe not so much for Molly. She doth detest the cold river water. However, a new foot bridge spans the Muskegon River high above the "rapids" of Big Rapids. They are not spectacular. They are not to behold. This town’s name is a misnomer. I want my money back.
Studying my ass off at the FSU library. Heh, whatever. Their newly built library is actually pretty sweet to study in. It has a lot of high ceilings and large windows to chill and study. When I wasn’t burying my nose in my notes, it was sweet to drift off staring at the architecture. God, I hate school.
Other things I will miss about not just being here, but getting to/from here is the strange journey here and back. Depending how creative you get coming up to Big Rapids, you pass though quite a bit of Amish country. Especially near Stanwood and Rosebush. At least if I have a breakdown, brother Hezekiah can get me to class on time in his vintage horse-drawn buggy in conservative style. How times have changed. Perhaps if it was like 1750 and this was Germany, they would be the hippies of their times. Now they just interfere with my haste as I’m speeding by slurping coffee.
Other sweet stops were the several cider mills you’d pass by on M-66. In the Fall you could stop and pick up a jug of fresh cider or at any time I guess you could also find glass bottles of Sioux City sarsaparilla. My life for their sarsaparilla!
Other oddities: The low-freq FM-band station that comes in between Weidman and Shepherd plays a lot of old 1940’s era radio programming on Friday afternoons. As I would head down through there on my way to Lansing on Fridays, I would usually get to hear an episode of the Planet Man and the Great Gildersleeve. When you’re driving in the car on a long trip, and there’s nothing better to do, these radio plays really do the trick. Also sickeningly addicting is NPR, which I listen to compulsively, now that I get to listen to a repeater of the Ann Arbor NPR/Michigan Radio news broadcast on my travels around the state. (104.1 FM out of Grand Rapids, but also 91.7 in Ann Arbor/Detroit and 91.1 in Flint.)
And lastly, my little hut. My house is maybe about 180 sq ft. There’s a bedroom with just enough room for my bed and a nightstand, literally one foot to spare outside of that. A tiny bathroom where I have to step over the toilet to reach the unit shower. And the living room/kitchen where both are crammed somehow into enough space to fit a fridge, desk, futon, and TV with just about no room to spare. Photos are difficult. Not a lot of room for a wide shot. Might need a fish-eye lens to do it justice. It’s small and cramped, but it’s been home now for the last 16 months. I will miss it strangely enough, even though the experience is like living in submarine with windows. It means more when Michelle comes up. Makes me feel cozier, like this is our little destitute mansion. Someday we will both be living in something more accommodating, but this did just fine for now.
And now, I must head on down the trail come Friday. I’ll miss it more, knowing that once back with my folks, I won’t be living in my own place anymore. Michelle already doesn’t. I can’t wait to get an apt again.
Big Rapids, someone set you up the bomb. Make your time.